Stephen Robinson

template from @106Euan As Rishi Sunak continues his "clickbait" culture war (as described by a billionaire investor in the UK) against environmental legislation, I am writing to urge you to ensure that (ZEV) Mandate is not overturned. It is essential not just for environmental reasons, but for the UK economy, that the ZEV mandate remains in place. This shall ensure that vehicle manufacturers' annual sales are comprised of an increasing percentage of electric vehicles (EVs) over the coming years, thus increasing the supply of EVs as we urgently phase out polluting petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles. Honda and Toyota have allegedly raised concerns with Kemi Badenoch, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, regarding the ZEV Mandate. This is unsurprising, because both Honda and Toyota are notoriously late to the party with their electric vehicle offerings and have been caught napping by the rapid uptake in EVs, and indeed by their rivals' superior range of EVs, including models like the Nissan LEAF and Mini Electric that are made in the UK. Additionally, the UK exports 80% of the cars it makes. 70% of these vehicles are exported to the EU, the US and China, all of which are rapidly embracing electric vehicles (as are their manufacturers) and have passed legislation that shall phase out the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. If the UK continues to produce petrol and diesel vehicles and falls behind on EV manufacturing, our vehicle export market shall collapse as we shall be both unable to sell to our main export markets that have ZEV mandates in place, and unable to attract buyers overseas who are embracing EVs. Therefore, Kemi and the UK Government must not pander to laggards such as Honda and Toyota, and should ensure that our automotive industry embraces the electric revolution that is happening not just in the UK, but in our key export markets. Otherwise, UK vehicle factories shall be relocated to countries that have greater government support and legislation for EV uptake, 800,000 jobs in the UK automotive sector shall be lost, and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) estimates that the UK would lose £13 billion in export revenue by 2030. Furthermore, any move to reduce the number of EVs made and sold in the UK will negatively impact the second-hand market, resulting in millions of households being stuck with polluting and expensive to run petrol and diesel cars until more new EVs filter through to the used car market. Not only this, but billionaire investors in the UK economy are already talking of moving their investments overseas if this "clickbait" anti-green culture war continues. This would further destroy the UK economy as well as putting us dangerously far behind on our climate commitments. For those who say that the ZEV mandate and 2030 new petrol/diesel vehicle sale deadline aren't possible: Norway, a market in which over 80% of new vehicle sales are electric, and there are plenty of households without driveways who cope fine with the abundant public charging infrastructure available (incidentally, the UK's £6 billion of investment planned by the EV charging industry by 2030 is at risk if the ZEV mandate and/or 2030 new petrol/diesel vehicle sale deadline are scrapped, watered down or pushed back). The National Grid has said that there is more than enough generation capacity to allow every car in the UK to switch to electric, today. Additionally, the National Grid has in excess of 200 GW worth of new generation capacity due to come online by 2030, which is roughly four times our absolute extreme peak demand today. I urge you to intervene immediately to ensure that the UK Government does not scrap, push back or water down the ZEV Mandate and/or 2030 new petrol/diesel vehicle sale deadline, not only to avoid disasterous consequences for the climate, but to avoid disasterous consequences for the UK economy, which would be rendered an industrial irrelevance on the world stage.